The staff of the Incredible Tales magazine
Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder, or just Incredible Tales for short, was a science fiction magazine published in New York City in the United States of America in the 1950s as experienced by Captain Benjamin Sisko under influence of visions from the Prophets and Pah-wraiths. Its owner was Mr. Stone, and its main office was in the Arthur Trill Building in Harlem. Each copy sold for 35 cents.
In the visions experienced by Sisko, the people of his life on Deep Space 9 were transposed to this setting, taking on the lives of people of the era. Sisko himself became Benny Russell, a black writer struggling with the racism of the time; Kay Eaton, aka "K.C. Hunter", also confronted prejudices of the time and was forced to hide her identity as a woman science fiction writer from the magazine's readers. Douglas Pabst was the magazine's editor and its other writers included Julius Eaton, Albert Macklin, Herbert Rossoff, and Hugh Campbell. Darlene Kursky worked there as a secretary. Russell's conflict with the magazine's position came to a head when, rather than publishing his story about a black captain of a space station, the owner of the magazine had the entire print run pulped before it went on sale.
The typical working structure of the magazine had the house illustrator, Roy Ritterhouse, creating several drawings on a monthly basis. These illustrations were then handed out to the writers on an assignment basis. The writers in turn were expected to develop stories that would accompany the images for which they typically were paid on a per-word basis.
Other artists that provided illustrations for the magazine included John Eaves and Rick Sternbach.
The magazine's main competition of the time was Galaxy, which featured the works of notable authors such as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein. (DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars")
The various magazine covers paid homage to science fiction, including Star Trek itself, by using titles similar to those of well-known science fiction or Star Trek stories. In particular, the March 1953 issue pays homage to Star Trek: The Original Series by using names of episodes from that series, credited to their original writers, as well as featuring the matte painting used in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
The Incredible Tales bullpen was represented with a set built on Paramount Stage 18. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 116, p. 26)
Staff[]
March, 1953
Circa 1953:
- Douglas Pabst – Editor
- Herbert Rossoff – Writer
- Benny Russell – Writer
- Julius Eaton – Writer
- Kay Eaton – Writer
- Albert Macklin – Writer
- Roy Ritterhouse – Illustrator
- Darlene Kursky – Secretary
Issues[]
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Stories in the works[]
These stories were in development for an issue of Incredible Tales that was ultimately pulped and never released:
- "Please, Take Me With You" – Kay and Julius Eaton (proposed), Illus. by Roy Ritterhouse
- "Honeymoon on Andoris" – Illus. by Roy Ritterhouse
- "It Came From Outer Space" – Kay Eaton (title)
- "Deep Space Nine" – Benny Russell
- Untitled robot story – by Albert Macklin. Pabst said he "'…loved it."
External link[]
- Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works